Three imperatives for building tomorrow’s infrastructure
As digital technology becomes more accessible and robust, project managers handling large-scale builds should consider how data management tools can optimise their processes and help Australia meet its future infrastructure needs.
The civil infrastructure sector is already making use of a range of emerging technologies like digital twins, artificial intelligence (AI), building information modelling (BIM), the Internet of Things (IoT) and advanced analytics. These tools generate a significant amount of data, which can be used to enhance decision making and improve project outcomes.
While having access to large data sets can keep organisations informed, issues can occur when information is poorly managed.
Ineffectively managed data can lead to projects errors, which result in rework, delays, budget overruns, damage to reputation and even contractual penalties. Keeping data well-managed and connected is vital to continued project efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Common Data Environments
Accessing and storing data though a secure, shared platform – called a Common Data Environment (CDE) – helps mitigate the challenges of data management.
Cloud-based CDEs can improve project management by securely storing and sharing data between team members, different teams and even external stakeholders. This allows all relevant parties to utilise the information that matters and set projects up for the best possible outcomes.
One of the primary benefits of CDEs is that all data is centralised and compatible. In projects using manual data sharing, information is often incompatible due to different systems or software. This means that shared data can become inaccurate or outdated, which leads to costly project errors. CDEs allow all stakeholders to access the same data sets securely and consistently, ensuring information is always up to date and correct for everyone.
By utilising this centralised data platform, project managers can predict and minimise wasteful activities, reduce costs and use time more effectively.
Three critical factors
Organisations that manage their data with a CDE can improve their planning and decision-making across entire project lifecycles.
By fulfilling the following three imperatives, project owners can build today’s infrastructure for tomorrow:
Improve operational efficiency to deliver projects on time and on budget
Research has shown that large-scale projects tend to cost more and take longer than expected. As many as 91.5 per cent of projects run over budget, behind schedule or both.
While this can be caused by external factors like increasing construction costs and inflation, project managers can mitigate the impacts of these factors by utilising their data through a CDE, allowing them to make informed decisions and ensure projects are as efficient as possible.
Planners can eliminate significant data redundancy by combining geographical information systems (GIS) and building information modelling (BIM) through the CDE. Connecting these two elements seamlessly means designers have access to more accurate information and better geospatial context, resulting in better plans and saving money on requests for information.
Mitigate risk to improve the quality of work
Due to the complexity of assessing social, economic and environmental impacts, the planning and permitting phases are often where the biggest project delays occur.
Using the CDE to enable the dynamic interchange of BIM, computer-aided design (CAD) and GIS data allows project teams to easily and consistently access accurate data and greatly reduce the risk of errors and rework.
Additionally, the connected data platform enables automation, which can be used to streamline certain processes and eliminate redundancies, improving overall efficiency.
Reduce waste and increase resilience to enhance sustainability
Sustainability goals are commonplace in many organisations and projects across Australia, to ensure that the nation can achieve its future infrastructure requirements as sustainably as possible.
The data efficiencies granted by a CDE allow project managers to better include sustainable designs in the planning phase and to minimise material wastage over the course of project construction.
Infrastructure owners and operators can also use the centralised data to assess risks and asset life expectancy and resilience. This enables flexible planning for the reuse and repurpose of existing assets and improves the future designs of new assets.
Tailor your data solution
Data-informed decision-making can be the key to more successful, sustainable and resilient large-scale infrastructure projects.
Autodesk is a multinational provider of software solutions that can help project managers to develop a tailored CDE that suits their specific requirements and processes, enabling the centralised data management that leads to great project outcomes.
With a wide range of data management platforms at their disposal – all inter-compatible for efficient data sharing and optimisation – Autodesk can develop a software package suitable for any infrastructure development.
To find out more, visit autodesk.com/au
